Why we don't experience as much of Him in our services and activities as we'd like to. It might be because we still do so much of it out of fear, trying to earn His favor and appease Him. And He does not like this, because it keeps us from receiving His love, because true love can never be expressed under those circumstances, otherwise it is not true love, which is what and Who He is.
Stop. Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop. You need to be loved.
But couldn't it be because we need to be more holy??
Exactly.
And one of the greatest steps toward holiness that we can take is to eliminate fear from from our lives, because it is one of the least holy things out there. It is entirely unholy to be trying to earn His love.
God will never motivate you through fear! Fear is entirely UNHOLY! We need to stop being afraid of Him so that we are able to receive His love!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Fear of God?
Also, continuing on with the theme of being loved, I think I understand why it is that so much Christian writing carries with it the fear motivation, and why so much of it makes you feel afraid of God. It's because of the fact that we, as human beings, as a race, are so unused to being loved, and so used to being feared, that when He does something good for us, out of His love, we still, because we've been programmed to think and act and operate that way, see it through the lens of fear.
I think that this is what has happened to a lot of Christians, a lot of people, over the years, and that is why we have a lot of Christian literature that unintentionally makes us afraid of God. Because the people writing it were not able to see past their fear, in the situations where God did something REALLY good for them out of His love. And so they wrote down their experiences, because they rightly feel that they are worth recording and passing on to subsequent generations, but because of their lack of ability to receive love properly, they, because of their lifetime's worth of fear programming, logically then superimpose their fear onto that situation, their experience that they just had with God, where he tried to love them. Then when they write the experience down, they write their fear into it. Which is why, we, reading it a hundred years later, pick up on their fear, feel afraid of God, and assume (assume?) that being afraid of God must be correct, because how could this guy be wrong, who was such a great man of God, because everybody knows that all the great men of God lived in the 1800s, and we're just a bunch of schmucks today.
NO. The people back then were just as fouled up as we are today! They had no corner on the market. The Bible says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All. Even the great men of the 17th and 18th centuries! The Bible also says that there is no partiality with God!
The Bible says that God is love. The Bible also says that their is NO FEAR in love. What part of no don't we understand? When you sin, there is no fear in love. When you make mistakes, there is no fear in love. When you fail, there is no fear in love. When you give up and collapse under the pressure, becuase you just can't take it any more... THERE IS NO FEAR IN LOVE... AND HE IS LOVE.
God is love. Everything He does is out of love, out of WHO HE IS. It is irresponsible for you and me to abdicate the responsibility for our own relationships with God to someone who lived over a hundred years ago, and was just as screwed up as you and I are. No matter how spiritual their writings were, or are. It doesn't, in any waay, and cannot, in any way, release us from our responsibility to have a relationship with Him ourselves!!!
I think that this is what has happened to a lot of Christians, a lot of people, over the years, and that is why we have a lot of Christian literature that unintentionally makes us afraid of God. Because the people writing it were not able to see past their fear, in the situations where God did something REALLY good for them out of His love. And so they wrote down their experiences, because they rightly feel that they are worth recording and passing on to subsequent generations, but because of their lack of ability to receive love properly, they, because of their lifetime's worth of fear programming, logically then superimpose their fear onto that situation, their experience that they just had with God, where he tried to love them. Then when they write the experience down, they write their fear into it. Which is why, we, reading it a hundred years later, pick up on their fear, feel afraid of God, and assume (assume?) that being afraid of God must be correct, because how could this guy be wrong, who was such a great man of God, because everybody knows that all the great men of God lived in the 1800s, and we're just a bunch of schmucks today.
NO. The people back then were just as fouled up as we are today! They had no corner on the market. The Bible says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All. Even the great men of the 17th and 18th centuries! The Bible also says that there is no partiality with God!
The Bible says that God is love. The Bible also says that their is NO FEAR in love. What part of no don't we understand? When you sin, there is no fear in love. When you make mistakes, there is no fear in love. When you fail, there is no fear in love. When you give up and collapse under the pressure, becuase you just can't take it any more... THERE IS NO FEAR IN LOVE... AND HE IS LOVE.
God is love. Everything He does is out of love, out of WHO HE IS. It is irresponsible for you and me to abdicate the responsibility for our own relationships with God to someone who lived over a hundred years ago, and was just as screwed up as you and I are. No matter how spiritual their writings were, or are. It doesn't, in any waay, and cannot, in any way, release us from our responsibility to have a relationship with Him ourselves!!!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Your Authority
First John 4:13 states that "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as He is, so are we in this world."
Holy smoke. Did you catch that? This is possibly the most amazing, most fear smashing, guilt defeating statement statement anywhere ever.
Do you think that God ever got mad at Jesus? Do you think that Jesus was ever afraid of His Father?
Was Jesus afraid of the devil?
No. The answer to all of these questions is NO... and neither should you be!
Why?
BECAUSE AS HE IS, SO ARE YOU IN THIS WORLD.
You, as a child of God, with a new nature created in the nature of Christ, are just like Jesus. All His authority, all His love, all of HIM. WHO HE IS, His nature, IS NOW YOUR NATURE.
We have no business ever being afraid of God again. Ever.
Holy smoke. Did you catch that? This is possibly the most amazing, most fear smashing, guilt defeating statement statement anywhere ever.
Do you think that God ever got mad at Jesus? Do you think that Jesus was ever afraid of His Father?
Was Jesus afraid of the devil?
No. The answer to all of these questions is NO... and neither should you be!
Why?
BECAUSE AS HE IS, SO ARE YOU IN THIS WORLD.
You, as a child of God, with a new nature created in the nature of Christ, are just like Jesus. All His authority, all His love, all of HIM. WHO HE IS, His nature, IS NOW YOUR NATURE.
We have no business ever being afraid of God again. Ever.
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